Davos day 3: Oil protest, Facebook COO on 'girl' T-shirts

Jan. 25, 2013
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A Greenpeace activist dressed as a polar bear stands on the roof of a filling station during a protest against global oil giant Shell near the Swiss resort of Davos, where the 2013 World Economic Forum is taking place. / Johannes Eisele AFP/Getty

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switerzland, has reached day 3 and the talking-shop of the world for global-leader types is showing no signs of slowing down.

On Friday morning, activists supported by Greenpeace decided to have their say. Armed with a big fake polar bear they occupied a Shell service station in the Swiss resort to protest Royal Dutch Shell's oil drilling in the Arctic. They hung a banner: "Arctic Oil â?? too risky."

The first two days at Davos saw some of our planet's most powerful and influential people voicing their views on the future of the European Union.

There was more of that today when Europe's chief central banker, Mario Draghi, took to the stage to talk about "lessons from the past" and the "challenges for years to come."

Draghi, looking relaxed as he spoke with American economist John Lipsky, said that 2012 was an "interesting year." He said that "substantial progress at euro zone governance levels" had been made.

For 2013, Draghi said that the biggest strategic challenge was to "overcome the fragmentation that still remains," even though there have been improvements; in financial markets, for example. "We must go back to fully integrated financial and capital markets," Draghi said. "Growth can't be achieved through the endless creation of debt."

But Davos on Friday wasn't all OMT bond-buying programs, Long Term Refinancing Operations and wistfulness for the days when the ECB could return to its basic mandate of maintaining price stability.

Some of the technology industry's go-to heavyweights were also doing the rounds today. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, spoke about what may be wrong social networking. "There's lots of people who think we can do more," he said. Berners-Lee was rueing the idea that for all that the Internet has brought people closer together it hasn't broken down some barriers related to religion and war.

Later, Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Marissa Meyer will feature in a conversation showcasing her views about the future of technology.

Before that, though, Facebook's Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg joined International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust and others to talk about how gender gaps can be closed at the highest levels of economic decision-making.

"I grew up in a world of boys. I have suffered my lot of discrimination. You have to elbow your way in," said the IMF's Lagarde.

Harvard's Faust spoke about how much it meant for female students at the university that the president of Harvard was a woman.

Facebook's Sandberg said, "Organizations play a critical role ... But what the situation really calls for is a much more open dialogue about gender." Sandberg noted that T-shirts are still for sale in the U.S. aimed at boys that say "smart like daddy" while others are geared toward girls that say "pretty like mommy."